In a fuel tank for use in vehicles, for instance, a shock absorbing material 6 made of a vulcanized rubber shaping rpoduct, a mat-like non-woven fabric or the like has conventionally been appended at a portion of the surface of a fuel tank 4 by using an adhesive 5 or the like as shown in FIG. 2. Then, the fuel tank 4 is mounted, for example, to the floor back face 7 of a vehicle body by way of the shock absorbing material 6 being clamped by a metal belt or the like not illustrated.
In conventional shock absorbing materials, if the surface smoothness of an object to be buffered is poor, the area of contact with the shock absorbing material is decreased which tends to diminish the bonding strength. Further, the bonding strength of the adhesive may possibly be degraded with the passage of time, which may lead to the disadvantage that the shock absorbing material will become detached, coupled with the loosening of the metal belt due to the vibrations during running. Further, when using highly water absorbing materials such as non-woven fabrics for the shock absorbing material, water contained therein has been found to cause undesirable effects on the corrosion resistance of the vehicle body and the fuel tank.
The present invention has been achieved in view of the foregoing problems and it is an object thereof to provide a shock absorbing material which is capable of closely contacting two objects to be buffered and which is also excellent in various performances such as aging-resistant bondability, as well as to provide a method of effectively applying such a shock absorbing material.